Montana State University

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my two cents or maybe less. What people have described is right -- beautiful area and town, decent school but not even the flagship school for Montana. What does that mean? Is it just snob appeal that holds it back? No, as with most state schools all over the country, job opportunities are more likely to be limited, at least initially. So if one were to go to Mont. State, one should also think about what it would be like to live in Montana after graduation, or how the degree might play elsewhere. Maybe it does not matter as some people say, but it might matter for jobs (not cocktail talk) and definitely worth checking out where students end up, if you can find that information. Someone mentioned Humboldt State, a public school way up in Northern California, and it is probably not that dissimilar. Employment opportunities will be greatest where people are familiar with the school -- can people break out of that, will some students from Montana State end up at Google, sure, but it is generally best to play averages in this area, and on average, most opportunities will be in Montana or surrounding areas, at least initially. Nothing wrong with that, Montana is a beautiful state with lots of interesting stuff going on, but worth taking into account, my two cents.

We hire grads from state colleges over pretentious ivy schools. We find grads from the state colleges are more likely to come to us with a prior work history.

There is merit to both sides of the argument because there is a regional aspect that should be considered. On the other hand, there are far more non-Ivy grads than Ivy grads so programs are going to have a mix of people and there's a lot of hiring managers that honestly don't care or don't really understand or appreciate the differences among schools. I'm C-suite exec at one of the largest healthcare systems in the country. We offer three internship programs, one for rising juniors and seniors in college (dedicated to a department for the summer and priority hiring upon graduation), one for college graduates (new to our org, they sample different departments and we hire them into their fit), and one for MHA or MBA students. We have thousands of applicants every year for a very limited number of slots. The program basically fills up from kids at the 2 state schools then a smattering from other schools - I've never heard of most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my two cents or maybe less. What people have described is right -- beautiful area and town, decent school but not even the flagship school for Montana. What does that mean? Is it just snob appeal that holds it back? No, as with most state schools all over the country, job opportunities are more likely to be limited, at least initially. So if one were to go to Mont. State, one should also think about what it would be like to live in Montana after graduation, or how the degree might play elsewhere. Maybe it does not matter as some people say, but it might matter for jobs (not cocktail talk) and definitely worth checking out where students end up, if you can find that information. Someone mentioned Humboldt State, a public school way up in Northern California, and it is probably not that dissimilar. Employment opportunities will be greatest where people are familiar with the school -- can people break out of that, will some students from Montana State end up at Google, sure, but it is generally best to play averages in this area, and on average, most opportunities will be in Montana or surrounding areas, at least initially. Nothing wrong with that, Montana is a beautiful state with lots of interesting stuff going on, but worth taking into account, my two cents.

We hire grads from state colleges over pretentious ivy schools. We find grads from the state colleges are more likely to come to us with a prior work history.

There is merit to both sides of the argument because there is a regional aspect that should be considered. On the other hand, there are far more non-Ivy grads than Ivy grads so programs are going to have a mix of people and there's a lot of hiring managers that honestly don't care or don't really understand or appreciate the differences among schools. I'm C-suite exec at one of the largest healthcare systems in the country. We offer three internship programs, one for rising juniors and seniors in college (dedicated to a department for the summer and priority hiring upon graduation), one for college graduates (new to our org, they sample different departments and we hire them into their fit), and one for MHA or MBA students. We have thousands of applicants every year for a very limited number of slots. The program basically fills up from kids at the 2 state schools then a smattering from other schools - I've never heard of most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my two cents or maybe less. What people have described is right -- beautiful area and town, decent school but not even the flagship school for Montana. What does that mean? Is it just snob appeal that holds it back? No, as with most state schools all over the country, job opportunities are more likely to be limited, at least initially. So if one were to go to Mont. State, one should also think about what it would be like to live in Montana after graduation, or how the degree might play elsewhere. Maybe it does not matter as some people say, but it might matter for jobs (not cocktail talk) and definitely worth checking out where students end up, if you can find that information. Someone mentioned Humboldt State, a public school way up in Northern California, and it is probably not that dissimilar. Employment opportunities will be greatest where people are familiar with the school -- can people break out of that, will some students from Montana State end up at Google, sure, but it is generally best to play averages in this area, and on average, most opportunities will be in Montana or surrounding areas, at least initially. Nothing wrong with that, Montana is a beautiful state with lots of interesting stuff going on, but worth taking into account, my two cents.

We hire grads from state colleges over pretentious ivy schools. We find grads from the state colleges are more likely to come to us with a prior work history.

There is merit to both sides of the argument because there is a regional aspect that should be considered. On the other hand, there are far more non-Ivy grads than Ivy grads so programs are going to have a mix of people and there's a lot of hiring managers that honestly don't care or don't really understand or appreciate the differences among schools. I'm C-suite exec at one of the largest healthcare systems in the country. We offer three internship programs, one for rising juniors and seniors in college (dedicated to a department for the summer and priority hiring upon graduation), one for college graduates (new to our org, they sample different departments and we hire them into their fit), and one for MHA or MBA students. We have thousands of applicants every year for a very limited number of slots. The program basically fills up from kids at the 2 state schools then a smattering from other schools - I've never heard of most of them.

You market your internships poorly or have no interest in attracting talent coming from elsewhere. We get them from all over the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Bozeman is an awesome town. DD got one of those priority mailers from Montana State over the summer. She applied (mainly because she was excited to apply somewhere) and got her acceptance within 2 weeks. That let her go into senior year with an acceptance which lowered the stress level a bit. Like your son, she loved Bozeman when we vacationed there and thought Montana State would be a good safety. We did see the campus - it's quite nice with a lot of new buildings and the people at the school are extremely nice. If your son likes the town it would be a good safety.

We looked at MSU for DC HS Class of 2019 and this sums it up nicely.

Prepare your student if they go to MSU for lots of visits from Mom and Dad b/c it's just such an amazing town.

One thing to think about is that our college-age DC's smaller private college is handling COVID extremely well, whereas MSU and a lot of of the other state schools (see: JMU in VA) did not have the resources, wherewithal, or whatever to deal with the outbreak in the same way. But that's going to be over and never happen again, so yes, MSU is a wonderful safety.

Another thing is that SFHs and the new condos they are building are so expensive there that it would be great to get to live there on the cheap as a college student.

Also it's going to be so built up soon that I think it will lose its charm, so now is still a great time to spend 4 fun years there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just my two cents or maybe less. What people have described is right -- beautiful area and town, decent school but not even the flagship school for Montana. What does that mean? Is it just snob appeal that holds it back? No, as with most state schools all over the country, job opportunities are more likely to be limited, at least initially. So if one were to go to Mont. State, one should also think about what it would be like to live in Montana after graduation, or how the degree might play elsewhere. Maybe it does not matter as some people say, but it might matter for jobs (not cocktail talk) and definitely worth checking out where students end up, if you can find that information. Someone mentioned Humboldt State, a public school way up in Northern California, and it is probably not that dissimilar. Employment opportunities will be greatest where people are familiar with the school -- can people break out of that, will some students from Montana State end up at Google, sure, but it is generally best to play averages in this area, and on average, most opportunities will be in Montana or surrounding areas, at least initially. Nothing wrong with that, Montana is a beautiful state with lots of interesting stuff going on, but worth taking into account, my two cents.

We hire grads from state colleges over pretentious ivy schools. We find grads from the state colleges are more likely to come to us with a prior work history.

There is merit to both sides of the argument because there is a regional aspect that should be considered. On the other hand, there are far more non-Ivy grads than Ivy grads so programs are going to have a mix of people and there's a lot of hiring managers that honestly don't care or don't really understand or appreciate the differences among schools. I'm C-suite exec at one of the largest healthcare systems in the country. We offer three internship programs, one for rising juniors and seniors in college (dedicated to a department for the summer and priority hiring upon graduation), one for college graduates (new to our org, they sample different departments and we hire them into their fit), and one for MHA or MBA students. We have thousands of applicants every year for a very limited number of slots. The program basically fills up from kids at the 2 state schools then a smattering from other schools - I've never heard of most of them.

You market your internships poorly or have no interest in attracting talent coming from elsewhere. We get them from all over the country.

We get applicants from all over the country, not necessarily selections because there is a strong regional bias here for the state universities.

[Anonymous]

^^Ah, gotcha. Doesn’t sound like a very fair process, which I guess is your point. Not exactly the point the poster was making, which was decidedly anti-Ivy rather than just provincial.